In the last BLOG we looked at the teaching of the Trinity a little bit in order to show that Arminian theology and modern Calvinistic theology (some) alike dishonor the Holy Spirit in their teachings of salvation and the application of that salvation. I quoted George Smeaton a Scottish theologian of great eminence and will do so again: “And as to the divine works, the Father is the source FROM WHICH every operation emanates (ex ou), the Son is the medium THROUGH WHICH (di ou) it is performed, and the Holy Ghost is the EXECUTIVE BY WHICH (en wi) it is carried into effect.” I then added the following few sentences and will simply repeat them from the last Blog. In one sense here is the Gospel declared to us in a beautiful form. While there is a distinction in theology between the ontological Trinity (what it is in and of itself) and the economical Trinity (distribution of work), we must never allow the teaching of God to be divided from who He is. We must also never allow the teachings of the Persons of the Godhead to be so divided that we forget the essential oneness of God.
The design of this BLOG is to examine one passage of Scripture in light of the previous BLOGS and the above paragraph. Titus 3:4: “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, 5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
What we see in verse 4 is the appearance of the kindness and love of God. The Lord Jesus Christ was sent by the Father (John 3:16) and He came to put God on display and set out who the Father really is (John 1:18). The Lord Jesus Christ was the very tabernacle of God and to see Christ was to see the very glory of God as it consisted in grace and truth (John 1:14). He was the very outshining of the glory of God (Hebrews 1:3). Jesus Christ was and is the perfect image of God in His divine nature (Colossians 1:15) and the Father sees Himself in the Son and if human beings want to see the Father they must go through the Son who is the only Way (John 14:6). Jesus Christ was indeed the very kindness and love of God in human flesh.
The Lord Jesus saved sinners, not on the basis of any of the deeds (not even the choice of a free-will) they have done, but simply in accordance with His mercy. Notice, however, that the text goes in a different direction than most evangelicals would go. Christ saves according to His mercy, but that mercy is carried out by the washing of regeneration and renewing (take note) by the Holy Spirit. The work of Christ must not be separated from the applying work of the Spirit because that which Christ earned is applied by the Spirit. What Christ did on earth was to purchase for His people the Holy Spirit and that is the heart of the New Covenant. But if the Holy Spirit was never applied, then the work of Christ would not have accomplished anything. God’s mercy comes to His people through Christ but by the work of the Holy Spirit. Then the text goes on in verse 6 to show that the Father poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ. Why did He do that? Verse 7 shows that He did that so that sinners would be justified by His grace and as a result of that they would be heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
In light of our overall purpose, we must see the application of this to the Gospel. It is not just theological speculation that I have been engaging in when I started talking about the application of redemption being part of the Gospel several BLOGS ago. It is straight from Holy Writ. The causal links that are given within Titus 3:4-7 link justification by grace alone with the acts of the Holy Spirit in the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. Christ is said to save sinners according to His mercy and yet that mercy is seen in the work of the Spirit in regenerating and renewing sinners. It is only when Christ saves and the Spirit applies is it said that sinners are justified by grace. We must learn to think of justification as forensic, yes, but also as applied by the Spirit. Not only did Christ earn salvation, but the salvation He earned is sufficient to be applied as well. In other words, part of the Gospel is that the death of Christ merited the application of salvation too. Christ did not earn salvation and then leave it up to the sinner to apply it or do something that God would then apply it, but Christ earned salvation from beginning to end so that the application is all of His work and totally of grace as well.
There is another distinction that we need to make at this point as well and I will get at it with a question. What is the difference between believing the doctrine of justification by faith alone and actually being justified by faith alone? One way to look at this is to say that one can intellectually believe in the facts of justification by faith alone and that would be a form of believing it. But in order to be justified by faith alone one has to have the Holy Spirit actually apply those things to the soul. Satan believes that sinners are justified by faith alone and yet he is not and never will be converted. The Holy Spirit will never apply the work of God to him. Arminian theology rightly has the work of Christ in one sense at the center of it all, but it leaves the application of the work of Christ to the human being as a work of the free-will. Many modern Reformed people also do the same thing though they give lip service to a little more, and yet the intellectual aspect of Reformed theology thinks that a mere intellectual belief is all that is needed. Scripture, however, tells us something far more. The true Gospel is grace in its conception of the Father and grace in earning the merits of salvation. It is then grace by the Spirit in applying it.
The Holy Spirit is vital in the work of the Gospel and of justification. Both Arminianism and some forms of Calvinism have a Gospel that falls short of the Gospel of Scripture because Scripture sets out the Holy Spirit applying the Gospel to sinners. We fall far short of a Trinitarian Gospel when we rule out the Holy Spirit or leave the application of salvation to sinners themselves. The Gospel of justification by grace alone through faith alone is the work of the one God in three Persons. The Father is the source from whom the Gospel came from. The Son is the medium through whom the Gospel comes and is earned. The Holy Spirit is the executive by which the Gospel is applied. Arminianism does not have the Gospel applied by grace alone and instead leaves that in the hands of the will of man. Many in the Reformed community leave the application to the intellect of man and sometimes as the Arminians do leave the application up to the will of man. Both fall short of a Gospel that is of the pure grace of the triune God.
God Loves... Himself 
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